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INSTRUCTION 



AND 



HINTS OS ROWIH 



n 



y 



!UN SO 1891 



S C . W. BARNES, 

MEMBER ISLAND CITY BOATING & ATHLETIC ASS'N,. 
Galveston, Texas. 

EX-MEMBER LONDON ROWING CLUB, 

England, 



&" 



:e:e,iOE 25 cents. 



Copyright May, 1891, by S. W. Barnes. All rights reserved. 



Q-V79 



INTRODUCTORY 



So often have I heard the question: "Where 
can I get a book that would teach me something 
about rowing?" that I determined to write a few 
suggestions to beginners, feeling confident that 
he who reads and follows out, with strict atten- 
tion, what I have written, may develop into a 
good oarsman ; and should success attend his 
efforts, my point will have been gained. 



CHAPTER I. 

ROWING ON STATIONARY SEAT. 

Rowing must not be confounded with sculling. 
In rowing you use but one oar, or "sweep," and 
in sculling you use a pair of oars, properly called 
"sculls." I will write on the former subject, 
(rowing) first, and give points on sculling after- 
wards. 

"What a splendid arm that man has; just 
look at his biceps. Would he not make a good 
oarsman or boxer ? " 

Such remark as the above, and I have heard 
it time and time again, indicates that the ques- 
tioner is not well up in rowing or boxing, nor 
the anatomy of the body. For rowing, pick me 
out a man with big hips and broad, deep chest, 
and not necessarily big arms, because rowing 
should not be done with the biceps. One's back 
and legs should have the hardest work, and one's 
arms only used to finish the stroke. If a man's 
biceps have become large from continued use of 
dumb-bells, or clubs, or any other exercise, as a 
rule he will not make a good oarsman ; he will 
rely upon his biceps to do the work that should 
be done by his back and head. It is a fact that 



one's biceps can be so enlarged that it becomes im- 
possible to stretch out the arm at full length, and 
quickness and length of reach are lost for slow- 
ness and unavailable strength. 

We will begin our rowing on a stationary seat ; 
and one should accustom one's self to row the 
port as well as starboard oar. Sit in the boat 
with your back perfectly straight and chest out. 
Round backs disfigure the boat. It is a mistake 
to think rowing will cause round shoulders, be- 
cause if the chest be thrown out at the end of 
each and every stroke, this exercise alone would 
widen and deepen the chest and straighten the 
back. Hold your oar with both hands, letting 
the blade rest flat on the water. The hand fur- 
thest from the blade of the oar, being called the 
outside hand, should clasp the handle of the oar 
at the butt, just allowing the little finger to lap 
over the end of the oar, which will help to keep 
the oar well " home," or pressed against the oar- 
lock. The inner hand — that is, the hand near- 
est the blade of the oar — should be separated 
from the outer hand about three or four inches, 
with the knuckles of this hand turned further 
over the handle of the oar, in order to assist in 
feathering the water. Now you have been given 
the position to sit in the boat, and how to hold 
your oar. In making your stroke you lower your 
hands, that is, drop them slightly towards your 



lap, bending your wrists and so feathering your 
oar; push out your hands to the full extent of 
your arms, then let your body follow your arms 
until you are reaching out as far over your toes 
as you conveniently can ; the further you reach 
the greater the length of stroke. Your body at 
all times, must move straight up and down with 
the boat, and in reaching forward to make your 
stroke your hands will be nearer the side than 
the middle of the boat. Don't let your body fol- 
low them further than the straight up and down 
movement of the boat will admit. Avoid, how- 
ever, over-reaching, as you will lose your steady 
balance and will not be able to catch the water 
strongest at the beginning of your stroke. 
Open your knees wide enough to admit of your 
stomach getting between them, raising your 
hands gradually as you have advanced them 
forward. The lowering and raising your hands 
is explained in this way: When you lower your 
hands, you necessarily raise the spoon or blade 
of the oar from the water and thus clear your 
oar of the water, and as you raise your hands 
when you are advancing to take your stroke, so 
you bring the blade of your oar nearer the water 
and ready to make your stroke. By watching 
this carefully you avoid rowing half a stroke in 
the air, a mistake often made. Do not begin to 
take your stroke until your oar is turned and 



touching the water or you will be losing the most 
important part of the stroke and leave the other 
oarsmen in your boat to do the hardest work. 
The blade of your oar, on coming in contact 
with the water, should be a little past the perpen- 
dicular; that is, the upper part turned a little over 
forward; if it be turned backward, you will knife 
the water and get no resistance against your oar 
and row too deep. If you have followed me 
carefully you are supposed to be now reaching 
forward ready to make your stroke. You have 
gone as far forward as you conveniently can 
with your hands and body; you have turned 
your knuckles upward so that the blade is a little 
past the perpendicular and ready to take the 
water. As soon as your oar touches the water 
press your feet as hard as possible against your 
stretcher, throw your head well up and back, 
putting the whole weight of your body, from 
your waist upwards, including your head, on to 
your oar, then straighten your back and thus 
force your oar through the water with all the 
weight and force at your command, not bending 
your arms, however, until your body has become 
erect and slightly past the perpendicular, then 
pull in your hands until they nearly touch your 
body by bending your arms, and finish your 
stroke. By putting the whole weight of your 
body on the oar, including the weight of your 



head, I mean pull from the small of your back, 
make that the leverage point; throw out your 
chest and you will avoid the fault of pulling with 
your arms only and thus losing one of the great- 
est points in rowing or sculling. The man who 
pulls with his arms only, stands no chance against 
a man who throws say 120 pounds (the weight 
of his body and head) on his oar every stroke 
he takes; besides, further, in throwing your head 
back it assists in helping to fill your lungs with 
plenty of air and you are not so likely to lose 
your wind. 

You have now finished your first stroke on a 
stationary seat. Drop your wrists and hands so as 
to commence feathering your oar and clear your 
oar of the water. Shoot out your hands quickly 
to the full extent of your arms, then follow along 
with your body, gradually raising your hands, 
and make your second stroke as you made your 
first. Watch all the points given and you will 
soon learn to row. The swinging of the body is 
done very much as if you were sitting in a rock- 
ing chair and wanted to rock; you do not move 
from your seat, but you let the weight of your 
body and head make the motive power Be 
sure and catch the water at the furthest point 
you reach, and don't come back before you have 
hold on the water with your oar, and then pull 
it through, only putting the blade of the oar in 



8 

the water far enough -just to cover the blade, and 
don't dig it deep under, or you will roll the boat. 



CHAPTER II. 

ROWING ON SLIDING SEAT. 

In recent years someone conceived the idea 
that if one could get nearer to one's work at the 
commencement of the stroke, (which is, as I have 
before remarked, the most important part of all 
the stroke,) that additional power on the oar, 
(not to mention more weight,) and a saving of 
strength would be gained, and thereby a quick- 
ening of time. Experience has proven this to be 
correct, and although the first race or two were 
rowed simply with greased stationary seats, mod- 
ern inventions have added a sliding seat to the 
boat and no noted race on smooth water is now 
rowed except in sliding seat boats. Sit on your 
slide as you were taught to sit on your station- 
ary seat, your back straight, chest out and oar 
resting on the water. Your feet are tied or fast- 
ened to your stretcher in order that you may, by 
the use of your toes, draw your body towards 
your feet. Commence your stroke by pushing 
out you hands beyond your knees, then com- 
mence sliding your body by the use of your feet. 
This is done by bending back your toes and 



9 

drawing yourself forward by the use of your feet, 
as they are tied to your stretcher, and bending 
your knees. Open your legs to admit of your 
body coming between them, and when you have 
come as far forward with your body as you can, 
your knees being outside your armpits, you turn 
the blade of the oar a little past the perpendic- 
ular to catch the water with the fullest amount 
of resistance, throw your head up and straighten 
your legs by kicking (as it were) off from your 
stretcher, straighten your back and finish your 
stroke, after your body has slightly passed the 
perpendicular, by bending your arms and bring- 
ing your hands up to your body just below the 
chest. You commence the second stroke imme- 
diately on finishing the first ; that is, when your 
body has passed the perpendicular in your first 
stroke, your hands drawn up to your body, then 
immediately force out your hands again without 
a second's delay until they have passed your 
knees, and don't begin to slide forward until 
then, for if you commence to slide before your 
hands are past your knees you will find that your 
knees are in the way of your hands and you will 
be obliged to straighten your legs again ; that 
is, to go back on your slide to admit of your 
hands passing over your knees. The quickest 
part of your stroke should be the finish of one 
stroke and the forward movement of your hands 



10 

for the next, because you are all leaning back 
on your seats at the finishing of a stroke ; the 
weight that is in the boat is thus thrown forward, 
dipping the nose down in the water and stopping 
thereby the way on your boat that you have 
made by the first part of your stroke. This is a 
very common fault, and I consider much good 
work lost thereby. If there be any pause (and 
it should be hardly perceptible) while rowing 
the boat, it would be better that it be made, not 
at the finish of a stroke, but just as your oar is 
about to be pulled through the water, and you 
brace yourself to make the supreme effort of try- 
ing to lift your boat along. When your hands have 
come as close to your body at the finish of your 
stroke as you can get them without touching 
your body, you should then lower your wrists 
and hands, commencing to feather your oar, and 
thus clear it of any wave that may have been 
caused by the man rowing behind you. If this 
were more generally attended to less "crabbing" 
would be done, as "crabs" are nearly all caught 
at the finish of a stroke. Feather your oar 
from one to one and one-half inches above the 
water. Use most of your strength on the be- 
ginning of your stroke, lifting, as it were, your 
boat out of the water by putting your weight on 
your oar and stretcher. 

To better illustrate this I will use the expres- 



11 

sion of a noted professional oarsman : "Young 
man, when you commence your stroke your 
weight should be all on your oar and stretcher, 
so that if you were sitting on eggs your weight 
would not break a single one of them. That's 
how to lift your boat." Watch your stroke oar 
and follow the time set by him. In nearly all 
boats you can see enough of the stroke oar to 
get your time and movements from him. This, 
I think, is preferable to watching the man imme- 
diately in front of you, for this reason: Sup- 
posing you were rowing in an eight-oared boat, 
and number seven, or port stroke, was a little 
slow, would this not necessarily make number 
six and the balance of the boat slower 
than the stroke ? Whereas if you were all 
watching the stroke oar, one alone might be 
slow and all the rest on time. Some recom- 
mend watching the back of the neck of the man 
in front of you in preference to watching the 
stroke, as it causes you to keep your head up. 
Never look out of the boat nor down at your 
feet, for you gain nothing by so doing. In feath- 
ering your oar avoid dragging it on the top of 
the water. The blade of the oar should be from 
one to two inches above the surface of the water, 
and highest when you bring your hands for- 
ward, and as you get the blade of the oar back- 
ward get nearer the water, so as to avoid rowing 



12 

in the air. Do not come forward on your slide 
with a jerk, as the weight of your body will, by 
being thrown forward, stop your boat. The 
sliding part of your movement should be done 
easily, smoothly and not abruptly. This is a 
very important thing to learn, as I have seen 
some come forward in their slide with so much 
force as to nearly stop the way on their boat In 
starting you take two short strokes to get way on 
your boat. After that you should row the usual 
length of stroke. Do not finish your stroke with 
a jerk, for if you should all jerk, as I have seen 
some do at the end of the stroke, your boat 
would be sunk that much deeper into the water 
and the way on your boat stopped. Don't talk 
while you are rowing. Save your wind for the 
finish. Never row straight head-on for the 
landing ; always come up along side. Let one 
man get out of the boat at a time and let the 
captain of the crew tell each man when to get 
out. 



CHAPTER III. 

SCULLING. 



In the two previous chapters, under the head 
of rowing, I have confined my instruction to 
rowing with one oar, or sweep, and as the actions 
in sculling are very similar, I will be more brief 



IS 

in my description of the movements of the body, 
taking it for granted that both should be done in 
the same way. It is harder to scull well than to 
row well, because you have two sculls to watch 
and work instead of one oar. You sit in the 
center of your sliding seat or stationary one, 
which ever it may be, keeping your sculls firmly 
clasped in your hands, resting the blades on the 
water, and so using them as a balancing pole, as 
it were, for in fact they regulate the riding ofthe 
boat on the water. Advance your hands first 
past your knees ; then bring up your slide by 
bending your knees, not, however, opening them 
as in rowing, as you should keep your knees 
closed when sculling on a sliding seat ; reach as 
far out with both your hands as you can, until 
they are nearly over the sides of the boat, 
then catch the water with your sculls, straighten 
your legs, throw up your head and the weight of 
your body on your sculls and pull through your 
stroke to a finish as fast as you can. You should 
keep your left hand over the right when the sculls 
overlap each other, which is the correct way to 
have them, as most men are stronger with the 
right hand than left, and it thus gives the right 
hand most to do in the way of balancing the boat. 
The starboard outrigger, that is the outrigger 
that holds the scull you are using with your left 
hand, should be about two inches higher than 



14 

the other so as to give your left hand a chance 
to be pulled over the right without knocking 
against each other. By raising your right hand 
when your scull is in the water, you thus raise 
the port side of the boat, and by pressing it 
down you, on the contrary, bear down that side 
of the boat. Swing straight up and down your 
boat and so keep its even keel on the water. 
Row a very slow stroke at first, so as to get ac- 
customed to handling your sculls freely, and 
afterwards you may increase the number of 
strokes to the minute as you advance in pro- 
ficiency. Try and keep your back straight at 
all times, as it will help you to learn to row from 
the small of your back and get the weight of 
your shoulders and head on your sculls, besides 
adding very materially to the looks of your boat. 
You should sit in your boat as straight as if you 
were sitting in your saddle on horseback, and by 
learning this at first it will be the easiest position 
for you to sit in afterwards. 



REMARKS, 



Much could be written about the benefit to be 
derived from the healthful exercise of rowing, 
and perhaps, next to sparing, it uses more mus- 
cles of the body than any other of the athletic 
sports. Both arms, both legs, the feet, back and 



15 

head are all used, and anyone with weak legs, 
arms or back will find it to their advantage to do 
some rowing". After any hard rowing take a 
rough towel and rub yourself down for three or 
four minutes, then a cold bath would be very 
agreeable to most people. It does not, however, 
suit everyone. Don't stand in a draught to cool 
off, and don't drink ice water immediately after 
hard exercise. 



Galveston, Texas, May 28, 1891. 
Mr. S. W. Barnes, City : 

Dear Sir : Having read your book "Instruction 
and Hints on "Rowing," I can recommend it to 
all persons wishing to acquire a proper knowl- 
edge of this branch of athletic sports. Begin- 
ners in rowing, if not properly instructed, almost 
invariably fall into bad habits which they will 
find great trouble in overcoming. If the in- 
structions which are laid down in your book are 
carefully followed, it will be a very easy matter 
to become a good oarsman. This is the only 
book I have ever read where the principles of 
rowing are laid down in such a concise and 
simple manner that the ideas can be grasped by 
anyone, and trust that it will meet with the suc- 
cess which it merits. Yours truly, 

R. P. Allen. 



16 

Galveston, Texas, June 1, 1891. 
S. W. Barnes, Esq., City : 

Dear Sir : I have carefully read your valuable 
treaties on the art of Rowing and Sculling, and 
consider it one of the best expositions of this 
health-giving exercise I ever saw in print. A 
strict adherence to your valuable instructions 
will ultimately lead to perfect oarsmanship, and 
with the necessary physical capacity, to perfect 
health. You have filled a void long wanted, and 
are deserving of the praise of those who are 
desirous of becoming first-class oarsmen. 

Place it in a conspicuous part of your boat- 
house. Respectfully yours, 

John Crotty, 

Champion Oarsman of the State of Texas. 



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